U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., sent a letter last week requesting that the Senate Commerce Committee hold a hearing to examine whether drywall manufactured in China and distributed to many homes across the South poses a threat to the health or safety of consumers.

The tainted drywall has spawned lawsuits from home owners in Louisiana and Florida who claim it emits sulfur compounds that damage appliances and cause nosebleeds and respiratory ailments. The compounds reportedly fill the homes with the stench of rotten eggs.

Landrieu asked committee chairman John Rockefeller IV, D-W.Va., and ranking member Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, to schedule a hearing as soon as possible to examine how well federal agencies have responded to complaints about the drywall and determine whether government can provide additional expertise.

Her letter came as several federal agencies, including the Consumer Product Safety Commission and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, had begun collaborating with the Florida and Louisiana departments of health to interview households that bought the Chinese drywall, collect samples and otherwise swap information.

While Landrieu's office expressed concern that the Consumer Product Safety Commission had been slow to react to the threat, an aide said the commission had recently sent at least one full-time inspector to Louisiana.

"As a senator representing an impacted state, I am concerned that the CPSC has been moving too slowly as Louisiana and other states have reported serious health and safety problems, " Landrieu wrote in the April 22 letter. "The CPSC should have been the first line of defense in preventing this product from entering the U.S. market."

Landrieu's office also said the Environmental Protection Agency was testing samples of drywall manufactured in China and the United States and was expected to produce a preliminary assessment in May of its possible health consequences for consumers. A more substantial report will follow later in the year that could be used if the federal government were ever to pursue criminal charges against drywall manufacturers, according to Landrieu's office.

While it is not known how many households in Louisiana might contain the noxious drywall, most of the contaminated material is believed to have arrived in 2006, when the national building boom and the reconstruction effort that followed Hurricanes Katrina and Rita contributed to shortages of drywall manufactured in the United States.

Rene Milligan, a spokesman for the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, said the state has received 526 calls through a hotline available to consumers concerned about the Chinese drywall. Gov. Bobby Jindal contacted various federal agencies earlier this month seeking help with testing and monitoring.

Thomas Stone, the fire chief in St. Bernard Parish, said his family began noticing that door hinges, shower heads and metal objects began corroding inside the home they rebuilt after Katrina. His 11-year-old son is suffering from nosebleeds. He said he has gotten a positive reading for hydrogen sulfide in the bathrooms of his home after showers, when the moisture in the air is believed to combine with the sulfur compounds coming from the drywall.

Stone said he has been in touch with Landrieu's office about the problem and believes Congress needs to take up the issue so consumers in Texas and western Louisiana who are rebuilding from the 2008 hurricanes do not buy defective building materials.

"We do need help, " Stone said. "We have put everything we own into that home, and I have no money to redo it. I spent my life's 401(k) finishing it enough so we could live in it."

Kate Moran can be reached at kmoran@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3491.